release date: May 1988
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Imperiet & Stefan Glaumann
label: Mistlur Records - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "Jag är en idiot" - 3. "Party" - 5. "Ballad om en amerikansk officer" - 6. "...som eld" - 7. "I hennes sovrum" - 9. "Tiggarens tal (jag vill ha allt)"
4th and final full-length studio album by Imperiet, who is reduced to a trio as keyboardist Per Hägglund has left the band (he is credited for synths on #3) after recording the English-versioned album Imperiet from '87. As additional studio keyboardist, Stefan Blomqvist plays synths and piano on most tracks.
Musically, the band has made a small U-turn by playing more as heard on Blå himlen blues from 1985, which means with much less focus on synths and keyboards.
I recall my disappointment upon listening to the album back in '88, and comparing with the previous albums, I still find that this may be regarded as the band's least coherent studio album. All tracks could almost have been included on either of the band's previous and quite different three studio albums, but they mostly sound like a bunch of unreleased songs put together to make up one final album - but I also find that it's a better album in retrospect than I found back then.
It's no way near a poor album, but it may not be the right place to start if you wanna check out this band.
Thåström decided to disband Imperiet during the Summer of '88 but the band kept playing its scheduled national live concerts until September and played two more live concerts in Nicaragua and a final one in Costa Rica in December. Also in the Autumn of '88, Imperiet released a final 2 disc compilation and live album. Thåström initiated a solo career where he kept playing songs by Imperiet and usually with Hägglund as keyboardist, as he did on Thåström's first solo album Thåström (1989).
